“Ah.”
Lord Matlock’s voice was quiet, and he said something Elizabeth could not quite catch.
“Presently, her mother and one of her dear friends entered the room, while we were still in that embrace, and Mrs.Bennet immediately exclaimed about how delighted she was that we were to marry.”
“Clearly a trap,” Hartwood said. “I’d not have expected you to drunkenly stumble into one.”
“I was… upset. And I admired her greatly.”
“Which clearly she and her mother could see,” Lord Matlock said.
“In the end, I am afraid that I was seduced by a clever fortune hunter and her mercenary mother.”
Darcy’s voice, his summary of the situation — after all they had done with each other. After how she’d begun to feel for him… tears shoved their way out of Elizabeth’s eyes. She pressed her hand tight over her mouth. She would not be stupid about this.
“We can see from how you behave with her that you were not wholly unwilling to be seduced,” Hartwood said.
“You compromised, and with no choice but to marry. It is not what I expected,” Hartwood said. “I am not shocked that you married a girl with no fortune. You clearly were not motivated bythatto any great extent.”
“I meant to make a good match.”
“You meant to make an impossibly good match, which is almost the same as saying that you did not mean to make one at all.”
No words for a long moment.
“This is what comes from not keeping a mistress,” Lord Matlock grumbled. “Foolishness, and worse a lack of wisdom. Too much of the male seed left in the body causes a brain rot to set in.”
“Uncle, you know my principles.”
“And then she seduced you? — do you mean to say that you… engaged inconversationbefore the matter, and that was the cause for the speed of the wedding. Is she with child?”
“No. Ikissedher. That is all… her eyes drew me in. It was impossible to resist… maybe I could have resisted, but…”
“You did not want to, not after so many years of depriving yourself,” Lord Matlock replied.
“And then my honor was then tied.”
“Hmph.” Long silence.
“It was my responsibility. I kissed her out of my own… not my judgement, not my considered will — I was too deep in my cups for that. It was my volition, my action. No matter how much she enticed me,Iacted.”
Is this how he sees me?
“Fool man. You should have kept a mistress. Removing that desperate need, you could have been sensible about choosing a woman, the way I was, and found someone who would be your intellectual and emotional match.”
Darcy once more made no reply.
“That stiffness of principle. It shows a streak of the low church. Both in you and your father, while—”
“It is a sacred sacrament before God.”
“Had you even been with another woman before your marriage?”
“I had not been. I never wavered in that principle.”
Somehow… it made Elizabeth feel warmer towards Darcy, and understand better his desperation for the marriage bed. She knew from all that she had heard about the lusts of men, and he had controlled his, only ever allowing it out when it was directed towards her. It was a reason to feel flattered, in fact. If only…
Elizabeth’s face was covered with tears.
